Most leaders who engage seriously with AI end up in the same place: clearer about what they do not yet have in place than before they started. That is not a bad outcome. It is a useful diagnosis, and it points to a sequence that produces traction quickly.
Days 1 to 30: assess and inventory
Map where your data lives and who has access to it. Run an honest readiness audit across the four pillars of workforce, data, guardrails, and infrastructure. Identify your two or three highest-value AI use cases. Find out whether your team is already using AI tools, and under what governance. This is diagnosis, not action, and it is where good strategy starts.
Days 31 to 60: govern and educate
Draft and circulate a basic acceptable use policy. Begin executive fluency work with your leadership team so the people making decisions understand what they are deciding. Establish data residency criteria for tool procurement. Define what success looks like for your first AI initiative before you build it, with a specific business metric attached.
Days 61 to 90: deploy one thing well
Launch your highest-priority use case against that defined metric. Evaluate the result honestly. Document what you learned, including what did not work, and use it to shape the next 90 days. This is how capability compounds, one deliberate cycle at a time.
Clarity is not the reward for waiting. It is the product of starting.
Traction over transformation
The goal of the first 90 days is not to transform the organization. It is to build traction: one clear foundation, one governed policy, one deployed use case with a real result. That is a completely workable starting point, and it sets up everything that follows.
Frequently asked questions
How should a company start with AI in 90 days?
Spend the first month assessing data and readiness, the second drafting governance and building executive fluency, and the third deploying one high-value use case against a defined success metric.
Do you need a big budget to start with AI?
No. The first 90 days are about traction, not a moonshot. A data inventory, an acceptable use policy, and one well-chosen use case require focus more than large spending.
What is the goal of the first 90 days of AI adoption?
Traction rather than transformation: one clear foundation, one governed policy, and one deployed use case with a measurable result that informs the next cycle.
This piece is part of the Alberta Tribune series on applied AI in Alberta. See also The Imagination Gap Is the Most Expensive Gap in Business and Seven AI Mistakes Alberta Leaders Make, and How to Avoid Them.
ZAK is the founder of AIwithZak.com and CEO of ORKA AI. He writes on provincial AI strategy and policy at AI Alberta, and works with leadership teams across Alberta and Western Canada on applied AI strategy and execution.
What would you deploy first if you had ninety days and one clear use case?
